Depressed people see gray not blue

MANCHESTER, England, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- People with anxiety and depression are most likely to use a shade of gray to represent their mental state than blue, researchers in Britain say.

Peter Whorwell of the University Hospital South Manchester worked with a team of researchers from the University of Manchester to create an instrument that would allow people a choice of colors in response to questions.

"Colors are frequently used to describe emotions, such as being 'green with envy or 'in the blues,'" Whorwell said in a statement.

The researchers created a wheel of colors of various intensities, including shades of gray. They then asked a control group of non-anxious, non-depressed people to describe which color they felt most "drawn to."

When the test was repeated with anxious and depressed people, most chose the same drawn-to color as the healthy participants, yellow, and the same favorite color, blue. When asked which color represented their mood, however, most chose gray, unlike the healthy subjects who tended to pick a shade of yellow, the researchers said.

The study was published in BMC Medical Research Methodology.